Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany
Shaun Whiteside and Norman Ohler
6.0
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'The most brilliant and fascinating book I have read in my entire life' Dan Snow 'A huge...
Kindeo - Save your story
Lifestyle and Photo & Video
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Kindeo makes it easy and fun to save important memories and stories for your family, which can help...
Hons and Rebels
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'This book is just about my favourite book of all time ... I'm not entirely convinced I could like...
Incredibox
Games and Music
2.0
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Incredibox is a musical game that helps you create a mix very easily by managing a band of...
Doctor Who - Season 25
8.4
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The twenty-fifth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 5 October...
David McK (3728 KP) rated The Truth (Discworld, #25; Industrial Revolution, #2) in Books
Sep 11, 2022
Still as good as ever!
<original review below>
So, over the weekend I watched a BBC documentary about the late, great, Sir Terry Pratchett (Terry Pratchett: Back in Black) as part of which they brought up the fact that his earliest job had been as a reporter for his local paper (and saw his first corpse a few hours later, work experience meaning something in those days ...) .
Experience that shows in this novel.
The second of the so-called Industrial Revolutions (after Moving Pictures) sub-series of the Discworld novels, this is - IMO - the first to really get into the meat of said revolution, and concerns itself with Ankh-Morporks first newspaper, alongside a plot to depose the Patrician - a character, I feel, who (whilst mostly in the background in the earlier novels) comes more to the fore in this, as do the likes of Foul Ol' Ron, Coffin Henry, The Duck Man and Gaspode
Of course, it wouldn't be a Pratchett novel without a generous portion of puns running alongside the satire, parody and memorable characters (such as, say, Otto von Chriek: the vampire with a thing for flash photography ...)
David McK (3728 KP) rated Scoundrel (the sailing thrillers, #5) in Books
Nov 29, 2023
Maybe because I'm *from* Belfast, Northern Ireland and have relatives who lived through the period of history colloquially known as The Troubles (I was a teenager in the 90s, when they 'ended', and when this is set), so know exactly what the IRA and their loyalist counterparts were/are like.
It made my blood boil to read passages in this where they were treated as heroes by some in Boston (and, yes, I know it's a fiction book): surely to goodness nobody could be that naive??
Anyway, I normally like Bernard Cornwell (Author) novels.
I know he spent a bit of time here (the BBC, I believe?), before moving to the States.
His knowledge of landmarks does show.
I would have thought he would have known better, though, in how he portrays the tangled mess that is politics and history that went on in this fair isle.
Sorry, Mr Paul Shanahan: you're unlikeable as a lead character; no match to a Richard Sharpe or an Uhtred of Bebbanburg.
(his other stand-alone sailing thrillers - those I have read, at least - are all much better)
Doctor Who: Engines of War
6.5
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"I've had many faces. Many lives. I don't admit to all of them. There's one life I've tried very...
The Marlow Murder Club
10.0
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A delightfully clever new mystery from creator of BBC One's hilarious murder mystery series Death in...